Process for the production of blown glass articles.



D. D. CHAMBERLIN.

PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BLOWN GLASS ARTICLES.

APPLICATION FILED APILZZ' I913. RENEWED APR. 23, 1915.

men: ME July 27 BENJAMIN DAY CHAMBERLIN, OF CORNING, NEW YORK, ASSIGNORTO EMPIRE MACHINE COMPANY, OF PORTLAND, MAINE, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF BLOWN GLASS ARTICLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ma at, iota.

Application filed April 21, 1913, Serial No. 762,559. Renewed April 23,1915. Serial No. 23,504.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, BENJAMIN D. CHAM- BERLIN,a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Corning, county ofSteuben, and State of New York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Processes for the Production of Blown Glass Articles, ofwhich the following is a specification.

In the usual process of manufacturing certain blown glass articles onblow pipes (such as electric lamp bulbs), it is the practice to insert ablow-pipe into a pot of molten glass, and having gathered on the end ofthe blow-pipe a certain quantity or gather of glass to marver orotherwise shape such gather into a blank, which surrounds the end of theblow-pipe and projects from and beyond the end thereof. The blank isthen elongated and inserted in a suitable mold and blown, whereby theglass forming that portion of the blank which projects beyond the end ofthe'blow-pipe enters into the formation of the finished article.

For the uniform production of successive articles, and especiallytomaintain the walls thereof of equal thickness, it is important that theparts of the successive blanks which enter into and form the finishedarticle be identical in size, shape, mass and structure, and myinvention relates to a process whereby this identity can be closelyobtained with a consequent improvement in the character of the output.

For the purposes above set forth, my invention involves the shaping ofthe gathers into blanks which are uniform in the parts thereof going toform the finished article by forcing any excess of glass beyond adesired volume rearwardly on the iron, where it will not be blown, thisbeing by preference accomplished by the impact of a suitable gage moldupon the end of the gather, the inclusion of the glass within the moldfor this purpose being only momentary.

The matter above set forth forms the subject-matter of my priorapplication, Serial No. 674,814, filed February 1, 1912, while apparatussuitable therefor is shown in ap plication #716,915, filed August 24:,1912.

My invention for which I now seek a patcut by this application comprisesa segregation of similar portions of the uniform portions of thesuccessive gathers from the nonuniform parts, preliminary to elongatingsuch uniform portions and to blowing the same to shape while on theiron. The segregation above referred to may be effected by forming agroove in each blank at the desired point, whereby the glass adjacentthereto is chilled, and whereby upon the subsequent elongation, the partof the gather which flows down is the portion below such divisionalpoint.

My present invention further comprises, in its most perfected form, amarvering of the glass between marverers movable toward each other to apredetermined and uniform extent, and contacting with the glass at morethan two points, which are so located that the pressures thereof balanceeach other, and which prevent the movement of the blank while beingoperated on away from the center of the circle determined by themarvering points.

In the accompanying sheets of drawings, Figures 1 to 1 represent stepsin the process shown and described in my prior application Serial No.674,81 l, above referred to, and are shown herein for the purpose ofillustrating the difference between my prior application and thisapplication. Figs. 2 to 2 represent successive steps in the proc essthat forms the subject-matter of this application. Fig. 3 shows how aplurality of marverers may be used in carrying out the steps representedin Figs. 2 and 2 Referring now to Figs. 1 to l, the several steps of theprocess there represented consist in affixing on the end of a blow-pipeA, a gather ofglass B, as shown in Fig. 1. This may be accomplished bydipping the blow-pipe in molten glass or in any other desired manner.The gather is then while the blow-pipe is rotated, marvered, by bringingit into contact with a suitable marverer G, to give it, as shown at Fig,1, the shape of an irregular truncated cone, having the desireddiameter, and to render it solid and homogeneous, and to work back onthe blowpipe to a greater or less extent, the e Icess of the gather.After this marvering, a gage mold D is, while the blow-pipe is rotated,momentarily projected out and over the free end of the blank, to adefinite distance (see Fig. 1), and is instantly and as quickly as itcan be accomplished, withdrawn. Inasmuch as the cavity of this mold hasa definite capacity, which is less than the volume of glass left by thepreceding marvering prothe sides of the mold limiting the side flow ofthe glass. As only that part of the gather which extends beyond the endof the blowpipegenerally becomes distributed to form the finishedarticle, it willbe seen that each blank after the ga ing, consists of anuniform quantity of glass which will be utilized in the manufacture ofthe finished article. It isdesirable that this gaging of the blank bedone by the impactof the mold, and that it be not a slow flow of theglass requiring a prolongation of the contact of the mold therewith, asunder the latter conditions the glass will either adhere to the mold, beunduly cooled, or the blank will be twisted by the rotation of theblow-pipe. None of these objections, however, would be present in thesame degree if the momentary contact between the gather and the gagemold be repeated at short intervals, each of the contacts beingmomentary.

Upon the retraction of the gage mold, the

gaged blank is again marvered, as is shown in Fig. 1, by rotation on asuitable marverer E, whereby it is made into a cylinder,

- but by which the mass of glass projecting from the end of theblow-pipe as determined by the gage mold is not materially altered, andan initial cavity is then formed in that part of the blank which hasbeen measured, and-is beyond the end of the blow-pipe, by air introducedthrough the pipe (see Fig. 1). All of the steps before described are bypreference accomplished while the blow pipe is rotating, and while theend of the blow-pipe having the gather thereon is raised slightly abovethe other end thereof.

After the formation of the central cavity the blow-pipe is moved to avertical position with the blank depending therefrom, as shown in Fig.1, and the hollow portion of the blank allowed to elongate undertheinfluence of gravity, the rotation of the blowpipe at this time beingpreferably arrested. The blank having elongated to the desired extent isblown in a mold.

Figs. 2 to 2 show the steps of the process here sought to be patentedwhich differs from that previously described herein chiefly in that itprovides for a segregation of the gaged portion of the blank from theungaged portion thereof, and is therefore to .be preferred in that witha greatly excessive gather the large amount of glass forced back uponthe blow-pipe by the gage mold some- 7 times, in the elongation, runsdown the pipe and unites with the gaged glass beyond the end thereof,thus destroying the uniformity of the product. p

.The first step in the present process, viz.,

getting the gather upon the pipe, may, as

shown in Fig. 2, be identical wlth the first step before described, asshown in Fig. 1. The second step in the preferred process differs fromthe second step as before described only in marvel-ing between oppositesurfaces C, which are brought into a definite relation with each other,so that the resultant blank is given a definite diameter and shape whichis, in this case, preferably cylindrical, as shown in Fig. 2 The thirdstep, viz. the gaging is identical with the third step before described,as is shown in Fig. 2. In carrying out the'fourth step the gaged blankis again marvered into cylindrical shape and to a definite diameter, asit is the fourth step as before described, this being by preference donebetweenmarverers E shown in Fig. 2 and at the same time a groove isformed in the portion of the blank surrounding the blow-pipe, by meansof flanges d on the marverer or "marverers. This groove locally chillsthe glass adjacent thereto and will according to its depth and theextent to which it approaches the outside of the blow-pipe more or lesscompletely segregate the gaged blank projecting from the end of theblow-pipe from the ungaged, and irregular and variable mass of glasswhich has been pushed back on the blowpipe. By preference this groove isformed in the gaged portion of the blank or immediately above it, and itis formed at similar points in the successive gathers. The fifth andsixth steps are as shown in Figs. 2 and 2, the same as the fifth andsixth steps before described, but by reason of the segregation beforeeffected of the gaged end of the blank from the mass on the blow-pipe,there will in the elongation be no downward flow of the latter, thisbeing prevented by the chilling of the base thereof.

The blow-pipe is rotated during the steps represented in Figs. 2 to 2 inthe same manner as it is during the steps shown in Figs. 1 and 1, but isby preference arrested during the elongation, and is by preference againrotated during the molding.

In the present process shown in Figs. 2 to 2, there is also the furtheradvantage over that shown in Figs. 1 to 1, in that in the second andfourth steps of the latter (see Figs. 1 and 1) there is a tendency ofthe marverer to throw the blank being operated on out of the axial lineof the blow-pipe, and hence to cause some variation in the size of theblank as finished, even though such axial line of the blow-pipebebrought within a definite and predetermined distance of the blow-pipe,whereas the use of the plurality of marverers shown in Figs. 2" and 2,this does not occur, as with them the diameter of the blank produced isdue to the distance between the marvering faces, which are similarlyvaried in their distance from the ma am axis of the blow-pipe, and theblank is prevented by the balanced pressures of such faces from movingout of the axial line of the blow-pipe.

To obtain a more perfect balanced condition of the pressures on theblank during the action thereon of the marverers, I prefer to cause themar verers to make contact with the glass at more than two points, whichare so disposed that their pressures balance each other (as, forinstance, is the case when the marverers are arranged at equi-distantpoints around the common center toward which they are moved in reducingthe diameter of the blank) and whereby the blank is held againstmovement away from the center of the circle, which is de.

fined by the three marvering points. In Fig. 3 I have shown how fourmarverers C may be located at equi-distant points from steps of theprocess forming thesubject matter of this application is shown in my copending application, Serial Number 7 52,17 6, filed March 5, 1913, andin such application as filed I described and claimed the said process,and this present application, is therefore, in so far as I claim anddescribed such process, a continuation of my said prior application ofMarch 5, 1913, but I in this application make no claim to mechanisms ormeans by which such process may be carried out'as the same is to formthe subject-matter of the prior application, and of other applications.

As this application is directed to a process, I do not claim herein anymechanism for accomplishing such process, as apparatus therefor formsthe subject-matter of other applications by me now pending in the UnitedStates Patent Ofiice.

Having thus described my invention, whatlllil.

"ing consisting in gathering upon irons masses of glass, working suchglass masses upon the irons to render them uniform in parts, insegregating similar uniform portions of the several masses and in thenelongating such segregated portions while on the irons. 1

4. The hereinbefore described process of producing uniform bodies ofglass for blowing, consisting in gathering masses of glass, working suchglass masses to render them uniform in part, in locally chilling suchmasses to segregate similar uniform portions of the several masses andin then elongating such segregated portions.

5. The hereinbefore described process of marvering a solid glass blankand reducing the diameter thereof, which consists in sub jecting it toside pressure at more than two points so located that the pressures fromsuch points balance each other until the blank is reduced to the desireddiameter.

6. The hereinbefore described process of producing uniform bodies ofglass for blowing, consisting in placing upon irons masses of glass,gaging such glass masses upon the irons by momentary contact to renderthem uniform at least in part, segregating similar uniform portions ofthe masses from other parts thereof and in elongating the segregatedsimilar uniform portions of the several masses.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name in the presence of twowitnesses.

BENJAMIN DAY CHAMBERLIN. In the presence of DELPHINE KEAGLE, G. WILLISDRAKE.

